Summary of Expert Insights from Dr. Mindy: Balancing Hormonal Health Through Fasting:
Dr. Mindy Pelz educates and empowers people to use intermittent fasting to overcome chronic disease and live a healthy life. She believes in the healing benefits of fasting and how it stimulates processes like autophagy to unlock natural healing throughout the body. Dr. Mindy recommends pairing fasting with hormones, which is especially beneficial for women. She suggests cycling fasts in accordance with women’s menstrual cycles to optimize the benefits of fasting. Men are governed primarily by testosterone, and their fasts can vary based upon specific goals, such as stimulating autophagy, stoking fat burning, and busting weight loss plateaus. Fasting is a hormetic, or good, stress, but it needs to be coupled with adequate rest and recovery, especially at the right times. Dr. Mindy believes that balancing stress levels with fasting habits is essential for building health and avoiding over-stressing the body.
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Headline: Discover the Healing Power of Fasting with Expert Dr. Mindy Pelz
Sub-headline: A Q&A on Fasting Cycles, Hormones, and Balancing Stress
Dr. Mindy Pelz is a holistic health expert who has made it her mission to educate and empower people to use intermittent fasting to overcome chronic disease and live life at their healthiest. In her best-selling book, Fast Like a Girl, she explores the rationale and benefits of fasting with your hormones in mind.
In a recent interview, Dr. Mindy discusses the healing power of fasting, the fasting cycle, and balancing stress. Here are some of the highlights from the conversation:
The Inspiration for Fasting
As a health practitioner, Dr. Mindy was inspired by what she saw clinically in her practice, where patients were coming in with multiple conditions and complaints. She started with changes to diet, but found that fasting was a powerful tool to help people gain and rebuild health, without requiring rigid changes to diet or strenuous exercise.
Fasting with Hormones in Mind
Dr. Mindy found that pairing fasting with hormones was magic for women. She developed the Fasting Cycle, which varies fasting to meet the needs of a woman’s body and menstrual cycle. There are two Power Phases in a woman’s cycle, and during these times, fasting can provide healing benefits. During the Manifestation Phase, fasting can hinder healthy progesterone levels, so it’s important to limit longer autophagy fasts. During the Nurture Phase, it’s important to focus on reducing stress and cortisol levels, and prioritize rest and recovery.
Different Approaches for Men and Women
Men are primarily governed by one sex hormone, testosterone, and there does not appear to be a need to cycle fasts to the same extent as women do. Men might vary fasts based upon specific goals. Women, on the other hand, need to be more aware of what day in their cycle they are on before leaning into specific fasts, especially the longer ones.
The Importance of Balancing Stress
Dr. Mindy emphasizes that fasting is a hormetic, or good, stress, but it needs to be coupled with adequate rest and recovery, especially at the right times. For women, stress sensitivity is higher during specific times in their cycle when hormone levels are high. During the Nurture Phase, it’s important to emphasize rest and recovery and avoid adding stress to the system with fasting and vigorous exercise.
Promoting Metabolic Health
Dr. Mindy sees fasting as a necessary tool for promoting metabolic and thyroid health. She believes that people who have too much cumulative stress in their life often have a hard time losing weight and improving their health, even if they’re doing a lot of the “right” things. Therefore, it’s important to balance out stress levels and use natural hormone shifts to cycle fasting habits instead of piling on more stress.
Conclusion
Dr. Mindy Pelz is a passionate advocate for the healing power of fasting, especially when used in conjunction with natural hormone shifts. Her Fasting Cycle approach provides a blueprint for how women can use intermittent fasting to achieve optimal health while balancing stress levels. Ultimately, Dr. Mindy wants people to rediscover the powerful healing potential of their bodies and find health at every stage of life.
